In daily life, the term "dampness" is often mentioned. How can you know if you have dampness in your body? Under normal circumstances, everyone's body has some dampness. The human body has a natural ability to regulate against external changes in temperature and humidity. However, many of us, due to our constitution, illnesses, or unhealthy lifestyle habits, can cause an imbalance in the body's fluid regulation system. This leads to the accumulation of fluids, which then turns into dampness.
Five major symptoms of heavy internal dampness
How you feel upon waking. If you feel especially tired, dizzy, and listless every morning, as if you're wearing a damp piece of clothing, feeling unrefreshed, lethargic, drowsy, and experiencing memory loss, this could be a sign. People with heavy dampness often also feel a tightness in the chest, only feeling better after a long, deep sigh.
Stool condition. After your morning bowel movement, observe your stool. Does it stick to the toilet bowl and require more than one flush to clear? Normal stool is soft but well-formed in a log-like shape. If your stool is soft, mushy, sticky, and doesn't hold its shape, sticking to the bowl and being hard to flush away, it indicates heavy internal dampness.
Look at your tongue while washing up. If you notice a thick, greasy coating on your tongue, or if your tongue is swollen with distinct teeth marks along the edges, and you also have a dull, sallow complexion, puffy eyelids upon waking, or feel nauseous and dry-heave while washing up, these are signs of heavy internal dampness.
Poor appetite and digestion. If you don't feel hungry when it's time to eat, feel bloated after just a little food, and experience a subtle nausea during your meal, this is also a sign of weak spleen and stomach function and excessive internal dampness. This phenomenon is more common in the summer.
Soreness in the calf muscles. People with heavy dampness often feel soreness and a heavy sensation in their calves upon waking. They may also experience a noticeable, short-term weight gain, appearing as puffiness, and in more severe cases, edema in the lower limbs.
What foods should you avoid if you have heavy dampness?
Excessive internal dampness is often caused by a preference for cold drinks and an overindulgence in raw, cold foods like fruits and vegetables, which damages the body's "yang" energy. Normally, the body can naturally regulate against external temperature and humidity changes. However, some people, due to their constitution, illnesses, or poor lifestyle habits, can cause an imbalance in the body's fluid regulation system, preventing fluids from being expelled and thus affecting health. Heavy internal dampness can also be caused by improper diet, overwork, or excessive worry, which damages the spleen, or by a decline in kidney yang leading to insufficient spleen yang. In their daily diet, people with heavy dampness should avoid cold, sticky, hard-to-digest, and sweet foods. Sweet foods can promote dampness; eating them easily leads to the production of phlegm and dampness, causing water and dampness to accumulate in the body and worsening edema symptoms.
Cold foods include: bitter melon, muskmelon, watermelon, pear, banana, kiwi, mango, persimmon, water chestnut, honeydew, pomelo, etc.
Sticky foods include: tangyuan (glutinous rice balls), mooncakes, cream cake, chocolate, sticky rice cakes, etc.
Hard-to-digest foods include: fried foods, spicy foods, beans, onions, etc.
Red Bean and Coix Seed Soup
What to eat to remove dampness during the spring rains
Garlic
Garlic is a great ingredient for removing dampness. You can eat more garlic sprouts and use more minced garlic to season your dishes. When making savory porridge with lean meat or bones, you can add some whole garlic cloves. You can also add garlic to soups.
Ginger
Ginger is also excellent for removing dampness. You can use ginger paste or slices to season your daily dishes. You can also make dishes where ginger is the main ingredient, such as ginger-duck stir-fry, sliced pork with young ginger, or beef stew with ginger. People who work frequently in water are recommended to regularly drink sweet wine ginger soup. Purple ginger has the best dampness-removing effect, so it is recommended.
Perilla
Perilla is both a seasoning and a great remedy for dampness. When cooking fish, shellfish, seafood, river snails, and other aquatic dishes, add fresh perilla leaves or perilla powder. This not only removes the fishy smell but also expels dampness. Additionally, you can use perilla to stew meat to remove dampness; it is recommended to stew it with lamb or beef.
Chili Peppers
Chili peppers are also good for removing dampness. Very hot chili peppers should only be used to season dishes and cannot be eaten in large quantities. If you can't handle spicy food, eat more bell peppers or sweet peppers, which are non-spicy or mildly spicy.
Red Beans
Red beans (adzuki beans) are also excellent for removing dampness. You can make multigrain porridge with red beans or stew bone broth with them. The garlic pork rib porridge with red beans is highly recommended.
Alcohol
Alcohol is a good remedy for dampness. Drinking it in moderation is very effective for removing dampness. If you don't drink alcohol, you can add some to your ginger soup. If you can tolerate the taste, use baijiu (white liquor). If you cannot stand the taste of alcohol, add sweet rice wine or yellow wine instead.
Caramel banana pie